Sociological imagination is a sociological term coined by American sociologist C. Wright Mills in 1959 describing the ability to connect seemingly impersonal and remote historical forces to the incidents of an individual’s life. It suggests that people look at their own personal problems as social issues and, in general, try to connect their own individual experiences with the workings of society. The sociological imagination enables people to distinguish between personal troubles and public issues. For example, people in poverty by this perspective might stop to consider that they are not alone, and rather than blaming themselves should criticize the social forces that directed them into their present condition. Sociology (from Latin: socius, companion; and the suffix -ology, the study of, from Greek λόγος, lógos, knowledge) is an academic and applied discipline that studies society and human social interaction. ... A neologism (Greek νεολογισμός [neologismos], from νέος [neos] new + λόγος [logos] word, speech, discourse + suffix -ισμός [-ismos] -ism) is a word, term, or phrase which has been recently created (coined) — often to apply to new concepts, to synthesize pre-existing concepts, or to make older terminology sound more contemporary. ... Charles Wright Mills (August 27, 1916, Waco, Texas – March 20, 1962, Nyack, New York) was an American sociologist. ... Year 1959 (MCMLIX) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... List of major social issues overpopulation teenage pregnancy drug abuse gun control education issue singlemother increase in divorce rate increase in HI rate ... A boy from an East Cipinang trash dump slum in Jakarta, Indonesia shows what he found. ...

There are three key questions that constitute the core of Mills' sociological imagination:

1. What is the structure of a particular society and how does it differ from other varieties of social order?
2. Where does this society stand in human history and what are its essential features?
3. What varieties of women and men live in this society and in this period, and what is happening to them?

Mills¹ argued that ‘nowadays men often feel that their private lives are a series of traps’. Mills maintained that people are trapped because ‘their visions and their powers are limited to the close-up scenes of job, family [and] neighborhood’¹, and are not able to fully understand the greater sociological patterns related to their private troubles. Underlying this feeling of being trapped are the seemingly uncontrollable and continuous changes to society. Mills⁴ mentions unemployment, war, marriage and life in the city as examples where tension between private trouble and public issues becomes apparent. This article does not cite any references or sources. ... For other uses, see War (disambiguation). ... Marriage is an interpersonal relationship with governmental, social, or religious recognition, usually intimate and sexual, and often created as a contract, or through civil process. ...

The feeling that Mills identified in 1959 is still present today, and many examples can be found in popular media. One example is the tension that present-day women experience regarding their perceived housekeeping responsibilities, as discussed in a 2004 broadcast of Life Matters (Radio National 2004). The discussion focused on the rising popularity of domestic advice and support services, in particular the immensely popular American website FlyLady.net (Cilley 2004), which provides advice to people (mainly women) who are not able to deal with their perceived roles as home maker. Sociologist Susan Maushart argues that second-wave, White middle-class feminism has ‘thrown out the baby with the bathwater’ (Radio National 2004) because, although the victories of feminism have ensured that women are not restricted to being homemakers, they have devalued the home in their wake. Many women thus feel trapped between the social change achieved by feminism and the cultural expectations of being home makers. Year 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... FlyLady is a group set up by Marla Cilley, aka the FlyLady. ... Feminists redirects here. ...

Mills offers a solution to this feeling of being trapped. He argues that because: "neither the life of an individual nor the history of a society can be understood without understanding both"¹, we need to develop a way of understanding the interaction between individual lives and society. This understanding is what Mills calls Sociological Imagination: the 'quality of mind' which allows one to grasp "history and biography and the relations between the two within society"³. Mills believed, however, that "ordinary people do not possess the quality of mind essential to grasp the interplay of man and society, of biography and history, of self and world"². This article is about the study of time in human terms. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

Sociological Imagination is much more part of contemporary society than in the days when Mills wrote his book. Programs like Life Matters mainly deal with issues located on the crossroads between private trouble and the public sphere. Many people, however, do not seem to be interested in developing the ‘quality of mind’ that Mills envisaged. Most remain focused on private issues, without realising the social reality in which the issues are embedded.

See also

• Sociological perspective
• The Sociological Imagination

The sociological perspective is a particular way of approaching a phenomena common in sociology. ... Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: The Sociological Imagination The Sociological Imagination (ISBN 0195133730) was a book written by C. Wright Mills in 1959. ...

External links

• Sociological Imagination in life events
• Excerpt from C. Wright Mills, The Sociological Imagination

References

• A Current Affair: 2001, Drugs: the schoolyard trade, Channel Nine. (broken link ->) http://aca.ninemsn.com.au/stories/743.asp Visited 10 June 2004.
• Mills, C. W.: 1959, The Sociological Imagination, Oxford University Press, London.

1. (Mills 1959: 3)
2. (Mills 1959: 4)
3. (Mills 1959: 6)
4. (Mills 1959: 9–10)

• Radio National: 4 June 2004, Life Matters: The lost art of housework, Australian Broadcasting Corporation. http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/lm/stories/s1120513.htm.